SteveShannon

So, did you reprogram the MON button so it doesn't toggle through the three modes of the flashlight? (On, strobe, off).

Maybe I didn’t understand what you were asking when I answered earlier. I thought you were asking why hams also use GMRS. That’s the question I answered, thinking in terms of different services used differently. Or are you saying that they’re taking over GMRS and bringing with them traditional ham activities in an effort to make it ham-light, such as calling CQ, using Q codes, and ragchewing on GMRS? Steve

It’s manufactured by the same manufacturer as the Retevis RT97s and appears to have the same specs. Notarubicon’s measurements reflect a power output of about 6 watts after the duplexer, which was within half a watt of the Retevis.

They’re included to attract first time buyers.

Beep. ?

Thank you.

My first thought was that it might be an Ed Fong antenna inside that tube. ? Even if you wouldn’t choose one for use as a repeater antenna based on durability, Comet antennas have an excellent reputation for accuracy in their published specifications. It makes sense that @markskjervewould use their data.

That they’re extremely important to the survival of humanity. https://youtu.be/IuWiyiiWWgw

That’s a really good point.

Less expensive hobby repeaters, such as the Midland, Retevis RT97, and one made with two KG1000G transceivers do not have auto ID. The RT97 doesn’t even have the ability to easily add it, but the RT97S (which it appears the Midland is based on) has a DB9 connector for an external mic and speaker that appears to support adding an auto ID controller (I have no personal experience, but that’s what it looks like). For repeaters which are made by placing two transceivers back to back, adding an ID controller happens in the connections between the two. You've already heard from two people with infinitely more hands on repeater ownership experience; I think you can see why they would prefer to use professional equipment here.

Sounds like an urban legend intended to frighten people away from using roger beeps. How about this? If you use a roger beep, just tell people it’s a Quindar tone used to turning on your remote relay stations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quindar_tones ?

It would be most helpful if you would screenshot the setting dialog in chirp and include that, but I’ll try to do this from memory. There’s about a 50/50 chance of me making a mistake . You need to tell Chirp that it’s two different tones and then the RX Tone is blank. That requires setting three different columns. First is Tone Mode, which is set to Cross. Second is Rx Tone or RX CTCSS or RX DCS, which you leave blank. Third is Cross Tone, which is set to CTCSS—> if you need a CTCSS Tone for transmit, or DCS—> if you need to transmit a Dcs Tone. Because the second part (after the arrow) is blank, you have no receive tone. If that doesn’t help I’ll take a look at your screen shot in the morning and try to figure out what I said wrong. Now if you want to do it from the front panel, I think you change it from Tsql to just Tone and it won’t look for a receive tone, but it has been a while since I programmed a UV5R.

I enjoyed the video. Thanks!

If GMRS radios becomes an expected link in the chain of emergency responses, there will be calls for higher quality equipment and a need for higher reliability for repeaters (redundant power supplies, voting systems, etc.) This would lead to more regulation and higher cost equipment. It's a matter of being careful what you wish for.

Those tones are like filters. If you set a tone (either CTCSS or DCS) on your receiver, your receiver opens the squelch for anything that matches. So, if you set your receiver DCS to 131 DPL, it will not break squelch for any transmission that does not include 131 DPL. If you do not have your receiver set to filter out anything, it will open the squelch for any transmissions.

Would you please publish your video review? ?

Elsewhere on this site is a video review of the Midland repeater and another member started a different thread today as well. Notarubicon should have a video soon as well.

Exactly right. There’s little to gain by trying to make GMRS something it isn’t.

Set it up the way @MichaelLAX shows in his screen shot: Cross in the “Tmode” column no value in the “RX CTCSS” column DTCSS-> in the “Cross mode” column (which sets it for DTCSS on transmit and nothing on receive.

In my area, there is no GMRS community; my time on this forum is my closest thing to a GMRS community. There is a small community of hams and they’re completely different than the “clipboard and khakis“ crowd. I’ve found them to be very welcoming and easy going, but I also understand that may be different elsewhere. I’ve never been a CB user, other than non-licensed walkie-talkies fifty years ago. Find the group that you fit and enjoy.

I have no idea how it could be destructive. I understand that “some people” find them annoying — that’s obvious from @gortex2‘s reply — but destructive? I don’t see how. I agree with you that the repeater owner definitely has the last say, but I also think there’s little to gain by joining a repeater and right away doing something that irritates many or most of the other users. I would listen to hear if others use roger beeps and then follow the community norm, just to keep the peace, especially if you hope to talk with any of them on the air.

Thank you! That helps. I’ll take another look at Repeater-builder.com. I think I’ll enjoy the math, but I signed up last year for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and so far I haven’t really been able to get into it. I don’t even understand some of the article titles, much less the math. Hopefully it’s a bit different than repeater-builder, which hasn’t lost me yet.

You’re welcome!

I second the suggestion by WRQC527. Removing the receive tone allows you to receive everything transmitted by the repeater on that frequency and is a great way to diagnose whether you have the correct receive tone programmed. If you remove the receive DCS/DTCS/DPL Code and suddenly can hear the repeater then either the tone was wrong or the polarity was wrong. You said you can hit the repeater. Do you mean that others hear you re-transmitted by the repeater? If so then you’ve already done well.

I’m just trying to understand, not argue, but I’m aware it could feel like I’m arguing. I feel like I’m just not getting it. If the duplexer on my RT97 prevents the integral transmitter (at 467 MHz) of the RT97 from affecting the integral receiver tuned to 462 MHz, why wouldn’t it prevent the transmitter from one RT97 (at 467 MHz) from affecting the receiver (tunes to 462 MHz) in another repeater, which is further away? Or are you talking about the transmitted signals adding together to form a different signal? That I could see.